For 500 years, Native people have been told that in order to follow and worship Jesus, they must learn how to act, speak, think, and pray like the White man does. For them, assimilation certainly appears to be central to the Gospel message of the missionaries. But is assimilation a core part of our religion?

The last thing I want to do is perpetuate a stereotype. Every now and then I meet someone who still thinks Native Americans have a “special connection” with the earth—that they can talk to animals or put their ear to the ground and hear a herd of buffalo coming from ten miles away.